Thomas Merton -- Zen Master?

FROM:
Zen and the Birds of Appetite, by Thomas Merton;

the
author’s note,





Where
there is carrion lying, meat-eating birds circle and descend. Life
and death are two. The living attack the dead, to their own profit.
The dead lose nothing by it. They gain too, by being disposed of. Or
they seem to, if you must think in terms of gain and loss. Do you
then approach the study of
Zen with the idea that there is something
to be gained by it? This question is not intended as an implicit
accusation. But it is, nevertheless, a serious question. Where there
is a lot of fuss about “spirituality,” “enlightenment” or
just “turning on,” it is often because there are buzzards
hovering around a corpse. This hovering, this circling, this
descending, this celebration of victory, are not what is meant by the
Study of Zen--even though they may be a highly
useful exercise in
other contexts. And they enrich the birds of appetite.




Zen
enriches no one. There is no body to be found. The birds may come and
circle for awhile in the place where it is thought to be. But they
soon go elsewhere. When they are gone, the “nothing,” the
“no-body” that was there, suddenly appears. That is Zen. It was
there all the time but the scavengers missed it, because it was not
their kind of prey.

Yeah, in his own way, he was as acute a critic of 'spiritual materialism' as Trungpa or any of the old Zen guys. Part of the 'toss 'em into the deep end-- they'll figure out swimming if they HAVE to' school.

What a loss, that right at the height of his appreciation of Buddhism, he exited the stage!

Hard to say: "there was no body to be found" according to his Zen friends. His order, however, probably interred him.

Hard to say: "there was no body to be found" according to his Zen friends. His order, however, probably interred him.

-kategowen

In terms of Buddhism's Two Truths doctrine:

Relative Truth: Merton's untimely death came in the last part of his trip to Asia. I loved reading the posthumously published "Asian Journal of Thomas Merton." He had planned, upon his expected return to the USA, to seek official permission to start a monastery, probably in Alaska. His last stop in Asia was Thailand. In his hotel room, he stepped out of the shower into the tropical heat and humidity. Seeking to cool off, he touched the switch on an electric fan that was not properly grounded. He was electrocuted and died.

Absolute Truth: Merton was not separate from the Absolute at any time. How deeply he Realized this, we will never know.

Thanks for posting this, Kate!

I love Merton. I have this book. Nevertheless, I intend to shamelessly steal the work you put into transcribing this excerpt so I can re-post it!

Best,
Mike "Gozen"

That's more credit than is my due, Mike: the reason for the weird size/spacing is that I cut & pasted from an email from a list I'm on! I'm a light-fingered 'borrower' myself.